It's been a good year for magnolias, Gillian Vine says.Based on fossil evidence, magnolias are believed to be the oldest woody flowering plants on Earth.
They come from Asia and North America and - as a rough guide - the evergreens like Magnolia grandiflora are American and the deciduous species Asian in origin.
Most are hardy down to zone 6 so can be grown in almost every New Zealand situation but spring flowers, even on ''toughies'' like the popular star magnolia (M. stellata), can be wrecked by late winter frosts or snow.
This year, fine, calm weather from mid-August until mid-September was perfect for early-flowering deciduous magnolias and in few places were they better than at Dunedin's Tannock Glen.
The 1.2ha property is best-known for its extensive rhododendron collection but its wet clay soil is perfect for magnolias, too.
''We've never lost a magnolia here,'' Dunedin Rhododendron Group resident Mark Joel says.
A Dunedin Rhododendron Group project, Tannock Glen was started in 1975 by three well-known rhododendron enthusiasts, Bruce Campbell, Chas McLaughlin and Ralph Markby.
The first two men were keen hybridists and Mr Campbell experimented with numerous species.
''He would cross anything with anything,'' Mr Joel says.
''This [Tannock Glen] was a paddock with one wee sheep trying to eat it all,'' Mr Joel says.
From the beginning, the emphasis was clear: ''Our aim is to have species and local hybrids, and choicer rhododendrons. That's in our constitution,'' he explains.
That policy extends to the magnolia collection, which has choice specimens and hybrids of Magnolia campbellii, including the white form, less familiar than the pink.
The reason for pink predominating in the West, explains Mr Joel, is because early plant hunters who saw both colours in the Himalayas preferred pink and took home seed and, being species, the seedlings had pink flowers.
Fuzzy grey flower buds start appearing in autumn, looking their best against a clear winter skies, then open in spring to dinnerplate-sized goblets that flatten out as the blooms mature.
The most impressive is perhaps deep pink Darjeeling, named for the Indian town in whose botanic gardens it was found in 1842.
Tannock Glen's specimen was a gift from Denis Hughes, of Blue Mountain Nurseries in West Otago.
New Zealand has been a leader in magnolia breeding for decades. Blue Tulip, Serene, Iolanthe and Diva at Tannock Glen represent a few of the numerous hybrids produced in this country.
The magnolias and rhododendrons are interspersed with other trees, shrubs and groundcover plants, reflecting the fact that their homelands would have a mixture of plants, large and small.
Among the evergreen magnolias is M. grandiflora, which comes from the southern United States and can grow to 25m-plus. In Otago, it flowers sporadically all year round.
Now reclassified as magnolias are the michelias, sweet-scented trees from southern Asia and the Himalayan foothills.
Named after a 17th-century Italian botanist, Pietro Antonio Micheli, they are usually evergreen.
The port-wine michelia (M. figo) and cream-flowered M. doltsopa are the most common, with Tannock Glen having a well-grown specimen of the latter.
In New Zealand michelias have been hybridised, and the late Os Blumhardt led the way with Bubbles and Mixed Up Miss.
Those described as Fairy Magnolias are michelias, bred in Taranaki by Mark Jury.
Like magnolias, michelias are easy to grow as long as they are kept moist but not allowed to sit in boggy ground.
They need little pruning, although a tidy-up after flowering may be needed, and because they are grafted, it is important not to leave shoots on the rootstock.
Magnolias are generally disease-free although leaf spot on new growth can be an issue in warm, wet conditions.
Although they have been around since the 1950s, yellow magnolias have been slow to catch on in the South.
Except for M. doltsopa, the magnolias at Tannock Glen are almost finished but there are lots of rhododendrons in flower, as the collection has plants that bloom in succession until after Christmas.
Tannock Glen, Torridon St, Opoho, is open every day. Entry is by donation.
